Counting The Cost Of Richard Poplawski’s Trial

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Trying Richard Poplawski for the murder of three police officers was never going to be a cheap affair and now it’s been revealed how costly it was.

First, the court had to go to Dauphin County to select a jury which cost about $3,500. Dauphin County charged Allegheny County just under $12,000 to gather the jury pool.

Once a jury was selected, transportation costs back and forth were around $5,000. The jury was put up at the Doubletree Hotel for 10 days at a price tag of over $24,000. Meals for the jurors added another $7,000 as well.

These extra court-related costs for the Poplawski trial add up to over $52,000, but that’s not all.

The district attorney’s office estimates $10,000 in non-budgeted costs and the sheriff’s office says its preliminary costs were more than $50,000. The public defender’s office said they had no figures at this time.

Add all that together and you get a rough preliminary cost figure of $112,000, nearly twice the cost of the Jonny Gammage or Richard Baumhammers trials.

Trial court Judge Jeffrey Manning said what many feel.

“I don’t know how much it cost, but it was worth every penny because justice does not come with a price tag,” Manning said.

Given the publicity in the Poplawski case and the need to go out-of-town for a jury, there was never any doubt at all that this case was going to be a whole lot more expensive than most criminal trials in Allegheny County.

Jon Delano is a familiar face on KDKA-TV, having been the station's political analyst since 1994.
In September 2001 Jon joined KDKA full time as the Money & Politics Editor and this region’s only political analyst who covers national and local...